can we just talk about this weather?

It.  Is.  AMAZING.

I'm choosing to not believe that in two days it will be rainy and 40 again.  It's not going to happen.  I'm wearing neon to prove it.  

the adventures of Jason and Molly Grass

Every time we go to our church, it's like the movie Groundhog's Day.  It's not as dank and dreary as that movie.  And the sermon isn't always the same, but it's the after church part that's stuck on repeat.  Somehow we always end up sitting by the same couple and always at the end of the service they stand up and say:

Have we met you before? 

Uhhhh heh heh I don't know, we've been here a couple times on and off.  

I'm Steve, this is my wife, Dee. 

Justin and Megan

Are you new to Dubuque?

We've been here about a year and a half.

Where are you from?  What brought you to Dubuque?

The usual I'm from this place, he's from that, jobs brought us here, etc. etc.

Justin never remembers meeting them.  They never remember meeting us.  I just squirm next to him, uncomfortably, willing the conversation to end.  This week Steve asked us to write down our names on his bulletin.  He's a visual learner he tells us.  What?  Do you keep a scrapbook of all your Sunday morning bulletins, Steve?  Justin complied and wrote our names down.  On our way to Ace Hardware where I informed him -again- that we'd most certainly met Steve and Dee he decided that since they'll  never remember who we are next time he should have written down "Jason and Molly Grass."

I'm still laughing about it.  

Molly Grass.  Out.

long Saturday drive

Today we set out to see The House on the Rock.  I know nothing about this place except that it's in Wisconsin and it costs $28 per person to get in?!?!  That seems outrageous to me.  Notice I said I know nothing instead of I knew nothing.  That's because I still don't know anything about it.

We didn't make it.

We took a very unfortunate detour that took us about 80 miles out of our way.  Right when we thought we would arrive, we took the detour back.  But it was a different detour.  And only about 10 miles long.  What?  Who set up that detour anyways.  By the time we figured out where we were, we were tired of the car and hungry and couldn't care less about a measly old house on a rock.

After spending about two hours of being uproariously carsick [blerg] and one very confusing conversation about turning left at the stop light [still confused about that one] Justin was so fed up he said "Just take a nap."  I don't think he finds roadtripping with me very enjoyable.  He also made me promise to figure out what medication I can take for future carsickness.  Done and done.  We finally got back in town and none of the restaurants at which we wanted to eat lunch were open so we dragged our bums home and dug through the fridge for the most unsatisfying lunch ever.

Then I made strawberry rhubarb slab pie.  I'll get to that some other day.  The whole day was not ruined, let's just hope we don't get that dangerously hungry again soon.

thursday

Today I have nothing to say, but lots I'd like to share.

For example, this morning my dog vomited on me in my bed.  At 4:30.  Which was stupid, and disgusting.  And if anyone knows anything about me, it's that I don't function like a normal rational human being around vomit.  I get squealy and grumpy and gaggy all at once.  Of course Justin was already at work so he didn't have to deal with it.  Just me.  Dog vomit on my leg.  In my sheets.  Soaking into my mattress.  INTO MY MATTRESS!  Laundry was done.  Baking soda sprinkled.  Dog was taken care of [She shouldn't eat a whole stick of butter, but I shouldn't leave a whole stick of butter available to her.]  So that's how my day started.  Early and stinky.

Later at work I got a phone call that a kid was unresponsive.  Shoot.  I know that this happens now and again in my job, but it still scares the crap out of me.  And I chose this particular job to distance myself from scary medical situations [I much prefer psychotic breaks myself].  EMS was called, the girl is okay.  And my co-worker, Brittni, and myself were exhausted the rest of the day.  An adrenaline rush at the start of a work day is too much.  Save it for before I go home, please?

Tonight I made pizza.  It was exceptional.

It's sunny, but not warm.

The NFL draft is on, which means I'll probably have to work on my grad school application tonight because there's nothing worth watching about this draft.  I feel like it's about 4-8 days long?  I will repeat my statement for cyberspace, it isn't usually the first round draft picks that stay famous.  Just saying.

And now since it's been almost a year, if that's even possible...  Here are some wedding rehearsal pictures that I love.  Weddings are such good fun.  I'd do one every year like a birthday party if I could.

Not mad.  Just showing of my guns.

At the church waiting for my side of the participants to arrive.  No surprise, Justin's side had it all together.  Here are cousins Asiah, Aliyah, Payton, Reece and Hunter.  JB is in the blue and his girlfriend at the time is the one avoiding eye contact.

Here I nervously twiddle my ring around my finger and think "ohmygosh ohmygosh everyone is looking at me.  They're here because of me.  Ohmygosh."

Practicing our vows.  Sadly, I don't really remember this.  Too much excitement.  Let it be known that no matter how many hamburgers I ate preparation for our wedding, I could not keep weight on me and that's why I look so ridiculously waif like.  Never fear, I no longer have this problem...

The after party to the rehearsal.  Bowling and an arcade.  That was genius.  PS socks and a cute dress? I'm a knock out. Big brother Brandon is in the foreground.  Dear friend from junior high, Alivia, is the one with the cute haircut in conversation with me while I kicked bum at skee-ball.

Soods take arcades seriously.  Little brother, Erick, outshooting his girlfriend, Jess.  My cousin, Carlin,  is the one with the hand-on-his-hip attitude in the back.

the summer without leaves

and other short stories.

Tonight J-dawg informed me that this will be the summer without leaves.  I kind of believe him.  I'm feeling hopeless about the tree's nudity.  The trees above dwell in our backyard and wave their cold, naked branches in the wind.  I've seen leaves in pictures, but I haven't seen a real, green leaf in person since last summer.  

I would also like to include my decision that sweet potato fries cool down quicker than regular potato fries.  This is real people.  They get clammy.  Ew, what a horrible description.

Tonight I cut a big piece of Easter candy in half for J and I to share and placed each half on a saucer.  When Justin picked up his plate, he also picked up the spoon sitting on the counter next to his dessert then asked, "Wait, what do I need a spoon for?"  I laughed for five minutes.  And then decided that I'm not the best at putting my breakfast dishes away.  [I could have said that I decided to be better about putting my dirty dishes in the dishwasher, but let's be honest...]

There are 70 and 80 degree days in the ten day forecast.  I want to dance and sing and befriend woodland creatures.

Thank goodness that this winter is coming to an end.  But please, can we have leaves?

blog on a dog

It's a thing I'm trying.  It's a little tricky because my computer is subtly rising and falling with Lady's every breath, but it's our way of hanging out and being together.  Or something.  She loves it because she thinks she's getting attention.  She lives and breathes for attention.

Today started out on a sour note, I killed a bird.  Let me clarify, Jeepy Jenkins killed a bird.  He flew into the back window as I came to a stop on my drive to work.  I watched him tumble to the ground through my rearview mirror and was distraught.  Considered crying.  Thought about calling someone but realized it was too early.  Then thought to myself, "ugh what a perfectly horrible way to start the week."

Luckily it didn't stay horrible.  It stayed moderately good throughout the rest of the day.  The weather was lovely.  We grilled out for supper.  Had left over BLT pasta salad [which was divineeee].  Seriously, Monday, thanks for taking it easy on me.

And here's a recap from the weekend.  This suburban girl learned about prom in a small town.  I'm learning all sorts about small town life being married to a boy from a tiny town.  Turns out that prom is a big deal to everyone who knows anything about anyone going to prom.  Half the town [if not more] showed up for Grand March to watch all of the couples parade around in their promery finest through the gymnasium that was transformed into a swampy wonderland.  I realize that swampy may not sound pretty, but it was so sweet and romantic.  Perfect.  And now the photographic splendor that is prom in Small Town, Iowa.

The gymnasium.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but you can see how many people are there, this was taken probably 30 minutes before Grand March even started.  It got more crowded.

JB and his pretty date Madi.  

Cousin-In-Law Hunter and his date.  In this picture he's
got a big smile because he got a cheer from the
crowd for utilizing the whole runway.  Atta boy.

Cousin-In-Law Reecey-pie and his date.  I love her dress.
So much poof.

Reece is a good little cousin and does what he's told.  He's so cute.  But let's all draw our eyes to the top left-hand corner of the screen and admire that neon green mermaid number.  I announced to everyone that was listening that THIS was my dress in my imaginary world that I would chose to wear for my imaginary world prom.

I caught baby fever.  This little Sydney is one of two.  TWO!  Twins are the cutest!  I loved them both.

And finally because I think Justin doesn't feel he's getting enough sympathy.  Here is his poor swollen ankle.  It's all black and purple and swollen twice its size from his pick-up game of basketball on Thursday.  He still won't listen and go in for an X-Ray.  Who's the medical professional in this house again?....

Now I'm going to do something productive because I can.  Thank you.

april showers

We spent the weekend in Minnesota where it snowed.  All weekend.  Happy Birthday, Mom, here's a bucketload of snow and some lovely January worthy temperatures.  As the whole midwest has been complaining, it has been a dismal spring.  Last year at this time my crabapple trees were in beautiful full bloom and all the leaves were out.  Today it drizzled and was 38 degrees.  Seriously April 15th?  Last night when we returned to Dubuque, however, it was 70.  We experienced a 40 degree temperature change over 250 miles.  That threw me out of whack!  I was dizzy from the pressure change but after a weekend of snow, it was welcome.

These are my trees last year at this time.  If not a few weeks earlier.

I had a very negative week last week.  I started about 4 blog posts and deleted them out of frustration.  I didn't get into the graduate program that I applied to and felt very unwanted because of it.  I spent the weekend at home trying to rise above my funk through shopping and chocolate chip cookies.  Let me tell you, it worked.  There are many grad programs that I can apply to for the next year.  And the one that rejected me would have been a pain anyway with the two hour drive once a week.

Adorned with my new attitude, I kicked bum at the grocery store today and got a week's worth of food for 65$ [boom].  Then made kick bum fajitas [boom].  Then cleaned all the floors and kitchen cabinets [seriously, boom].  The following are the reasons why I love cleaning the floors:

1. I love when the carpet is all going the right direction before it gets mussed up by a certain pit bull.
2. I love watching homeland security [Lady, the aforementioned pit bull] try to decide how to deal with the vacuum and swiffer.  They're frightening.  Tonight she ended up hiding behind Justin on the couch with her poor little ears back.
3. I love, LOVEEE the way it smells in the house when the floors are clean.

Also today I got my Kohl's card in the mail.  It is evidence that some people just need to retire.  My first name and middle initial is repeated on it about 4 times before they put my last name [Megan M Megan M Megan M].  Who even sent that out?  Obviously that cannot possibly be my name!  Plus my address is jacked up.  It's a miracle the card got to me in the first place.  So that's something exciting I get to work on tomorrow...

Happy Monday.  Bring it on week.  Also Universe, please can I have some blossoms? 

Geeking out.

Today the COOLEST THING EVER happened to me.

Not that cool, but Natalie Holbrook from Nat The Fat Rat retweeted me.  Ghandi could retweet me and I wouldn't be this excited.  

I texted J the following:

Seriously, Bobby Flay couldn't make me feel this cool.  And that's saying something.  Anthony Bourdain would be a tie with this chick.  Also what does that say that I can't think of a single celebrity that isn't a chef?"

After calming down, I decided that it would be a triple tie for first, Bobby Flay included [sorry Bobster].  But really?  I'm only starstruck by chefs and bloggers?  How weird is that?

In true geeky fashion, I took a screenshot of the tweet:

Also, I had to take one of my kids at work to an appointment today and the wait was ridiculous. So I tried to keep him entertained with my limited supply of kid-friendly iPhone apps.  He made this, I thought it was cute.  When he saw the sunglasses he said, "Whoa!  Aren't those sunglasses cool?"

How could I not agree?

UNrecipe

Today I bring to you a delicious and healthy UNrecipe.  Which basically means it's so stupid easy, my pitbull could do it.  Obviously that's not true.  My pitbull can't even defend me in the dark of the night when there are strange banging noises in the garage.  She hides deep under the covers and pretends not to be awake.  True story.  Also, please don't rob me?

Back to the UNrecipe.  This weekend Justin and I exclaimed that we would make healthier eating decisions and made new rules for ourselves [again].  This one was less unhealthy meat.  There have been studies done showing that red meat isn't the healthiest decision, so we've decided to cut back.  More chicken, fish, veggies, and legumes are happening over here!  

Tonight I threw together a delightful spring vegetable and chicken pasta dish.  It reminds me of alfredo without the obvious creaminess, and with the added bonus of fresh lemon juice.  So good and it took all of about 12 minutes to come together.  Honestly the longest part was waiting for the water to boil.

UNrecipe

8 oz. of pasta [gluten-free, or of your choosing.  We used shells because I didn't eat enough shells as a child and now I'm obsessed with them, but any shape would do as well.]

1 lb. of chicken [grilled, roasted, etc. Or no chicken if you're feeling particularly vegetarian]

Spring vegetables of your choosing, we used snap peas and asparagus.

The juice of 1/2 of a lemon

1/4-1/2 cup of grated parmesan

Many good cranks of freshly ground pepper

Garlic salt.  [My favorite can be ordered here.  It's the best ever]

A drizzling of olive oil

Just heat everything up and combine in a big bowl and toss.  It makes enough for 4 big servings, which is convenient because I love a good leftover lunch.

Leftovers.  That is all I have to say about that.

twosday

Did you ever make a healthy salad for dinner?  Lettuce, spinach, peppers, artichokes, garbanzo beans [or do I call them chick peas?  Which kind of person am I?], tomatoes, grilled chicken, etc.  And then just want to mow down like, everything in sight.  Yeah.  Me too.  But we get points for getting our vegetables in, right?  And then three chocolates, one and a half spoonfuls of cottage cheese and a heaping teaspoon full of peanut butter. 

I'm sitting here trying to convince Justin that we should go to Walmart so I can buy a movie.  And if we see a snack, sayyy, frozen yogurt, we might need that too.  Because I only spent 56$ on groceries this week so there's room for frozen yogurt.  Also did I mention that I'm starving?  

Hooray!  He just confirmed that we can go to Walmart. 

Good luck learning about how to max out your HSA account.  Oh wait, that's me...

Love,

Megan

This was taken at the Minnesota Zoo in the butterfly garden which happens to be my favorite exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo.  Or tied for first with the sea otters.

Funk

I'm going to re-watch Gossip Girl now that I know who the real GG is.

5 minutes in and my world was already crashing down around me...

Basically I'm in that weird funk after you finish all of the Dr. Who episodes available on Netflix.  It's not good.  And why can't the Doctor ever come to the United States when looking for a companion?  Ummm helloooo, I'm a spunky red head too.  Just saying.

On a completely separate note, whilst I was home last week my mom insisted that I get my hair cut.  She actually grabbed a chunk of it and said "this has to go."  Which I suppose was true, but, Moooom! So I went to her lady who grabbed a chunk of my hair and said "at least THIS much has to go."  Are we detecting a theme?  So 6 inches and a lot of brushing later my hair became 80's prom queen huge.  With a crazed look in her eye, my hair dresser diffused, fluffed, poofed and teased my hair into oblivion.  "The higher the hair the closer to God", yeah, I was all up in His business.

It's back to normal now.  But can we all just be in awe of that.  Wow.